Once a Republican, Freeman now devoted to Democrats

Democratic congressional candidate April Freeman believes she has good ideas to help working families in Southwest Florida that she'd carry out if elected.

First, she has to show voters there's an office to be voted for.

"A lot of the voters we talk to think the election is already over. They think the Republican won, and they didn't realize there was another opportunity to vote… And I want them to know there's another option," she said.

Freeman, 50, is a political newcomer who runs a small company that does product placement for television and movies. She has lived in Cape Coral, where she raised two daughters with husband David, since 1990.

But she has been groomed — and has groomed herself — to run for political office since before she could vote.

An aunt and a grandfather served on city councils in their Michigan hometowns, and a great-grandfather was a mayor. After watching their work, Freeman said she knew she wanted to run for office.

At 16, she was recruited by politically minded family members to work on a 1980 presidential campaign.

"I was a very loyal Republican," Freeman said. "My entire family was Republican."

She worked on that Ronald Reagan campaign, then went on to do everything from "lick envelopes to organize volunteers" for local and national Republican candidates over the next couple of decades, through the second election of George W. Bush.

Shortly after, she left the Republican Party to first become an independent, then a Democrat, she said.

"I had always wanted to work in the interest of the people, and that was happening more with the Democratic Party," she said.

She took it a step further in 2012, when she applied for and was accepted to work as a "fellow" on the re-election campaign of President Barack Obama.

"I was just taken aback at her willingness to learn and to reach out to the community," said Mike Brenner, a field organizer for the Obama campaign in Lee County in 2012.

Freeman worked under Brenner, organizing volunteers and hosting a few in her home, he said.

In the 10 days leading up to the election, Freeman opened her house to volunteers and devoted her life to the campaign, Brenner said.

"There were volunteers there from as early as 6 in the morning to as late as 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock at night," he said. "In her specific area of Cape Coral, the different precincts around it, we saw tremendous gains… I like to take a little credit, but I think April was the glue that held the team together up there," he said.

Timothy Talbott, Freeman's partner in a small production company, said it wasn't surprising when Freeman was able to organize volunteers and get out the vote.

"She's great because she knows how to talk to people. And she'll give her time and heart to what she's doing."

She also serves as local chapter president of the National Organization for Women and, prior to announcing her candidacy for District 19 in August, attended two leadership programs aimed at women candidates for office.

Those programs — the Women's Campaign School at Yale University and the Political Opportunity Program of political action committee Emily's List — "taught us to look out for our own campaigns," she said.

Eyes on local issues

Though she's running for a national office, Freeman's focus is on local, and sometimes hyper-local, issues.

On Thursday, she released her "Freemanomics" plan she said would increase Southwest Florida's economic standing, through a combination of increased taxes — on medical marijuana and casinos she wants to see be allowed in the state — and increased educational offerings and amenities like a high-speed rail to the area.

She's chosen not to expand the ideas to a national stage, she said — for example, a border protection proposal doesn't address the United States' border with Mexico. She proposes creating a joint law enforcement station off Fort Myers Beach, where United States Coast Guard members would partner with local agencies.

Her ideas for education ignore Common Core standards — which she said she supports — and focus on Florida's children through a program she calls "Sword in the Stone," meant to pair likely dropouts with mentors to help increase the state's graduation rate.

Another point in her plan involves bringing a "green space" with shops, parks and housing to north Cape Coral.

She discounts the idea these plans are too closely focused.

"If we can do these things right here at home," she said, "we can do them anywhere."

Before her candidacy

Where her timeline toward running for political office has been straight, her professional background is a long and winding road.

Freeman got involved in the television and film industry in 1990, she said.

Her longtime production company, Spiked Heel Productions, is in flux, awaiting a new name and outcome of this race before it ramps back up to work on a couple of in-progress projects, she said.

Before that, the company worked on some low-budget films and helped produce an HBO film, according to online databases.

Dealing with the cutthroat entertainment industry, Freeman "doesn't have any fear," said Talbott, Freeman's partner in Spiked Heel Productions.

"There's sharks out there and she's ready to dive right in. So I'd guess politics would be easy for her," he said.

But she's also owned a floral shop, helped run an online poker business based in Los Angeles and worked in sports marketing.

It's the last one where a dark spot appears on her history: a lawsuit, well-publicized in her home state of Michigan, brought by the family of a former Olympic ice skater Freeman knew.

In 2008, former Olympic skater Christopher Bowman was found dead of a drug overdose in a Los Angeles hotel room. Shortly after, the family sued in Oakland County, Mich., to keep Freeman from Bowman's grave, his family and his name, which Freeman and Bowman had used in connection with a sports marketing business.

In 2011, Freeman — who counter-sued the family — and the family settled, agreeing upon certain orders barring Freeman from Bowman and his family.

Freeman would not comment on the suit, and is forbidden to do so under the settlement, according to court records.

While Freeman can appear to be the least polished of the three candidates in the race she is capable of being the most straightforward.

Many of her answers are candid, and if she doesn't know an answer , she says so.

She said she has heard from "skeptics" about her campaign as a Democrat in a district that has far more Republican than Democratic voters, but isn't swayed.

"Of course I've heard from them. But I knew we had a plan and a goal, and we're working hard to hit that," she said.